132 PART TWO INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS CHAPTER 6*ECONOMIC RIGHTS AND OPPORTUNITIES 133 concerned that individualism led Americans to value their private lives over citizenship and their self-interest over the public interest.Others have since reached the same judgment,concluding that individualism is the source of much that is undesirable-as well as much that is admirable-in American society. A SELF-CENTERED PUBLIC Individualism can degenerate into crass materialism,fostering a society in ANADYE LHF ISSUE which human needs become marketplace commodities.The United States is the Individualism vs.the Common Good only advanced industrial democracy that has no comprehensive system of For many early Americans. goverment-paid health care for all citizens.Health care is not a recognized the sum of gocd govemment right of each citizen,so the quality of the health care Americans receive depends was the sum of individual toa considerable degree on their ability to pay.In some democracies this policy satisfaction,a view that many would be thought unconscionable,but in the United States it is not even of today's Ameticans accept. particularly controversial.On the basis of his study of political values,Karl Aleds de Tocqueville could not accept it,and his view, Lamb concluded that most Americans"cannot really imagine a society that too,has lts modem would provide substantial material equality." queville argued Individualism also diminishes Americans'inclination toward collective ac- that individualismn leads tion.Only 50 percent of America's adult citizens went to the polls to elect a people to judge everything president in 1988.In contrast,turnout levels of 70 to90 percent are common in by its material value andt place their self-in Alan Bakke was the focus of the e eot abov comman good.Which of arst Supreme Court ruling on other democracies.One reason for the difference is that Americans are more action.(AP/Wide inclined to believe that they can get what they want through the private sector. these views reflects your own Americans have an interest in politics,but they are immersed in their economic optnion? pursuits."In fact,when they are highly active politically,it is often for the by this discrimination.In one case,the Supreme Court upheld an admissions purpose of advancing their economic interests.The United States ranks first in quota for minorities that a federal judge had imposed on an all-white labor the number of its lobbying groups,most of which have the goal of promotinga union.The union had ignored two previous court orders to admit minority special economic interest,not the common interest. members,so the federal judge devised a specific timetable and quota for their admission.The Supreme Court concluded that the judge's plan was appropri- AN ECONOMIC ELITE ate,given the union's long history of blatant racial discrimination. A critical perspective on American politics,elite theory(see box),holds that the Although affirmative action is now an established policy,it is certain to people and their elected representatives have less to say about how the United remain a source of controversy.Most Americans have no real enthusiasm for a policy that is designed in part to make up for past wrongs.For example,76 KaLAsrGoCelif FmiliesFAr Pottics (New percent of the respondents in a national survey said that programs giving g杰&Infd preference to minorities in hiring and promotion are"unfair to qualified people who are not members of a minority,"whereas only 10 percent said that such preference is "necessary to make up for a long history of discrimination." "WORKFARE:ENCOURAGING SELF-RELIANCE Thus not only does democracy Individualism exalts self-reliance,and many Americans forget hi Individualism:A Mixed Blessing ancestors,but it hides his beleve that self-reliance s within the capacity ofnearly gress rejected policy.Opponents said Americans'beliefs about economic rights and opportunities have,it is dear, everyone.When Gallup pollsters asked in 1985 whether a that as workfare foroes welfare recipients to do any job descendants and sepurates his lack of effort or circumstances beyand control are more that officials assign,it amounts to involuntary servitude. cortemtporaries from him;it been molded primarily by a commitment to individualism.The first observer to In 1988,however,Congress enacted a national workfare throws him back forever wpon evaluate this relationship was Alexis de Tocqueville,who in the 1830s ques- often to blame if a person is poor,only 34 percent of the respondents attributed poverty mainly to uncontrollable law.Proponents claim that workfare can break the pattern himseif alone and threatens in tioned whether individualism was altogether a good thing He acknowledged circumstances.Such opinions account for the persistence of welfare dependency that can envelop entire families for the end to comfine him entirely that individualism had contributed to America's economic progress but was of the idea of "workfare"-the requirement that able- several generations.When a weifare recipient is trained or ititin the solitude时hsww bodied welfare recipients either work in unpaid jobs or employed,in this view,the probability increases that he or she will eventually find gainful,permanent employment. Alexis de Tocqueville, receive training for employment.In the earty 1980s Con